LOCAL POLICE are warning illegal small-scale growers of marijuana that they are luring dangerous criminals to Jamaica.

"That half acre of ganja could mean six guns in your community," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds, head of the intelligence-driven policing unit Operation Kingfish. "It is not that the police is wicked."

The growing of ganja has being linked to the notorious guns-for-drugs trade between rogue elements in Jamaica and Caribbean neighbour Haiti.

'High-grade' weed, mainly grown in the western parishes of Hanover, St James, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth, is smuggled into the United States via Haiti, which usually yields big bucks for those involved in the trade.

'Bush weed', or trash, on the other hand, is consumed by the Haitian market, which mainly pays for the guns with drugs. Hinds told The Gleaner that for every boat that leaves Jamaica to Haiti as part of the notorious guns-for-drugs trade, an average of 10-20 guns return on these boats.

Eight weapons

A source in the illegal trade told The Gleaner that one boat returned from Haiti last week with eight weapons.

Hinds said that one of the key elements to cracking the trade was the destruction of ganja fields locally. He told The Gleaner yesterday that when the police destroyed more than 100 acres of ganja in October 2007, the trade was stifled and no Jamaican boats left for Haiti for a while.

But Gleaner sources have said that if the police were paying closer attention to the amount of fuel consumed by fishermen, they would be reaping greater success in the fight against the trade. A boat leaving Jamaica to Haiti burns in the region of $150,000 worth of gasolene in the round trip, the source said, arguing that was significantly more fuel than used in fishing.

Hinds, meanwhile, insists that police have a good understanding of the syndicates involved in the drug market and have been working overtime to crash it.

Last week, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said in Parliament that the existence of Jamaican communities in Haiti was aiding the guns-for-drugs trade.